Articles
Acts 14 Men Are Not Gods
Acts 14 Men Are Not Gods
When the people of Lystra beheld that Paul and Barnabas had healed a lame man, they attempted to offer sacrifice unto them, believing that they were "gods come down to us in the likeness of men". That would be a heady situation. Many men have fallen in ruin on such rocks of pride and arrogance.
Among the Roman emperors this became a common arrogance. Caligula, Nero, and those that followed attempted to have the people honor them as god. They demanded to be acknowledged with titles and honor as 'one of the gods of Rome'. Herod made this fatal mistake when they cried out that he was a god and he paid the penalty of an awful death to prove that he wasn't (Acts 12).
Cornelius fell down before Peter, but Peter forbid it saying: "I too am just a man" (Acts 10:25-26). Men fell before angels and were reproved in similar manners (Rev. 19:10; 22:8-9). Even Satan attempted to have Jesus worship him as God (Matt. 4).
Worship belongs to God, not man. Yet even today there are those who espouse such pompous ideas. The Mormon church with their 'Adam-God' theory [falsely teaching "as we are, God was; and as God IS so we shall be"; and hence holding that Adam is the god that we deal with.] The new-age teachings often end up proclaiming that each of us is a god. Shirley McClain was shown in a video standing on the beach, looking at the sunset and proclaiming: "I am god".
Brethren, men are NOT gods. Hence Paul cried out: "Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them" (Acts 14:15).
A more subtle way of making oneself a god is by standing against God and His word. By doing such we proclaim ourselves wiser than God and make our thinking the rule of conduct. We may not vocally our self-deification, but we just as surely are making ourselves our own god as did the people of Lystra who attempted to make Paul into a god.
God is our creator. God is our sustainer. God is our God. We are to be His servants. We are to have Him as our head. We are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We are to worship him, and him only will we serve.
Hugh DeLong
Footnote: In the above, while speaking of God I am not just speaking of the Father, but would include Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Making all the necessary caveats about the nature of the Godhead would require a book of its own. Yet, the principle that I was dealing with remains the same.
